A Vase on Monday – Loosestrife, Burdock and Marigold

Joining in with Cathy’s Vase on Monday, here is a celebration of self-sown purple loosestrife and marigolds with a purple blue and pink lace-cap hydrangea, sitting on a stretch of crochet that is waiting, oh so patiently, to be sewn into a cushion cover.

with some added self-sown burdockthe burdock is the tall, large-leaved plant in the centre of the picture below, just after I pruned off its spreading side branches

I do not yet know what to do with a large gravel area at the front of my house and have allowed things to self-seed and added a few pots. It has been a wonderous mass of plants and teems with life. The burdock has been a top bug hotel hosting zillions of blackfly, ladybirds, ants, tincy spiders, shield beetles and probably hundreds of others I haven’t spotted.

Your crochet is such beautiful bright colours. I am too afraid of colour, I always choose neutral shades or pastels. Do you use a website to coordinate your colours when you arrange them like in the stripes above, or do you simply eyeball it and choose what you like? I’m so impressed!

Wow, thank you Wren, what a lovely comment! I just love playing around with colour so I do just what I like and see how it looks – I like to experiment and am not worried if I have to unpick stuff and try again. Neutrals and pastels look great, very classy and sophisticated, but I have to admit I’m a bright colour junkie!

I loved this colourful vase, it reminded me of the colours of ice cream. The special effect at the end is wonderful. I’ve been playing around with time-lapse videos here, fantastic when it’s a beautiful sunset as we’ve been having in Cornwall lately.

So glad you like the colour – I needed it today! So wet here! i like the reference to ice cream! Time lapse videos sound fun – aaah Cornwall, I’ve had some lovely holidays there – I especially love St Ives.

Brilliant crochet – and now we have a nice wet day for getting on with inside jobs like making cushion covers (or a million and one other things in my case!) 🙂 What a lovely little grouping of blooms and such an interesting observation of your burdock and all its visitors! The special effect photo is astonishing – how on earth does your camera do It, I wonder?! Thanks for sharing

I’m with you on the million jobs to do – for me it was finishing off some knitting projects today – the cushion still waits! I agree with you about the photo effect – how does a camera do that?! I think you can do the same thing to photos in Photoshop – more technology to get to grips with…
Thanks as always for hosting. xx

Thankfully a few small knitting w.i.ps finished and a lovely relaxing day to build me up for a week full of (grand)child care. Keeps me fit! Thank goodness the sun is shining today so we can go for a walk.

I love the shape and colors and flowers in this vase…the first picture and the special effects picture really show its shape but I love the special effects as it makes the vase show off even better. That burdock is unusual and I love the look of it in spring flower.

I like the way the first photo picks up the colors of the crochet in the flowers, and the greater ease of seeing the flowers against the white walls. The special effects are great for turning them into a painting, I’ll have to look into that. I like the early flowers of the burdock with the cute pink centers. The trailing off blooms of the loosestrife give so much height and structure to the arrangement!

Thank you Hannah for your thoughtful comments. I’m looking forward to using the Colour Sketch effect again, and I’m thinking the same as you about turning them into paintings. I was completely fascinated with those secretive little spheres of bristly pink burdock flowers too and watching it develop throughout the year has been such a joy.

So much in this post, lovely garden, beautiful crochet and cushions and pretty pretty flowers. I have lots of what did you call it loosestrife, always wondered what it was, I have pink and purple all round the pond.

Yes, loosestrife has seeded itself in some damp areas of my garden, I do like its tall vibrant spires – ooooooo a pond – I want me one of those! I’m wondering whether to put one in the front gravelly garden. Thank you for your lovely comment.

Oh, Daffy, I LOVE that first picture with the beautiful colours of the flowers reflected in the vibrant crochet cushion-to-be. very arty and a wonderful tonic for the rainy, thundery day we have here in Kent!

The flowers show up more clearly against the white wall but I do like the colourfulness of the first photograph with the almost rainbow crochet in the background! The effect picture is interesting too.

Staging the photos is always a challenge as I seem to have no clear spaces in the house at all! I’m glad you like colourful one – it has been so dreary and wet, I felt I needed a bit of BRIGHT! I’ve been taking more photos with that special effect and will be sharing them soon.